When Masterverse was revealed it seemed to be focused on the Netflix series and I wasn’t interested. But then it grew to be a giant melting pot, including all the classic characters. Still, I managed to resist because I already have those figures as part of the MOTU Classics line, and I’m also re-collecting them in Origins. But when they started doing Princess of Power, I began collecting those, and now I’ve added two more with the ’87 movie versions of He-Man and Skeletor. While I haven’t gotten around to reviewing any of those PoP figures, I decided to push these two to the head of the line. So let’s check out He-Man!

I’ll go on record by saying that I’m pretty fascinated by the 87 MOTU movie. I was 15 when it was released, so I didn’t have too strong an attachment to it back then, but I re-watch it from time to time. It’s a bizarre movie with some great highs and lows, an interesting behind the scenes history, and about 90% of it feels like its a struggle between ambition and reality, with reality winning the day. We got a few movie characters in Mattel’s Classics line, and Super7 did some as well, but this is the first time we’re seeing this version of He-Man as a mass release in the toy aisles, and that’s pretty cool. Movie He-Man is a Deluxe release, which means he comes in a wider window box and has some extra goodies. The package design is surprising to me, as it doesn’t go for the obvious green stone Grayskull motif. What we get is certainly fresh and new, but just doesn’t feel all that iconic. The figure comes on a clear plastic tray against an illustrated gray stone backdrop, and everything is collector friendly.

Here his is out of the box and ready to take on whatever 20th Century Earth and Cannon’s limited budget has to offer. And I do really like a lot about what Mattel did with this figure. This reimagining of He-Man is definitely one of the high points of the film for me, and this figure conveys that look very well. I particularly love how layered the figure is, with most of the costume being sculpted as separate pieces and attached to the body. Only the undies, leg and bicep straps, and boots are part of the body itself. This gives the figure a lot of wonderful depth. There’s some excellent detail sculpted into the armor grieves, shoulders, and that left wrist bracer. All of these pieces are cast in a rich bronze with some wash to bring out the detail. You get similar fixtures as part of the belt buckle and the medallion on his chest. The sculpted muscles are well-defined, although they look a bit awkwardly pinched at the elbows, which was clearly done to improve articulation, so I’ll take it. He-Man’s cape is made of a very light red cloth, connects at the shoulders, and has a gold ornate pattern across the bottom edge.

Behind the cape is a scabbard for his sword, and this is an interesting design. The scabbard itself only houses the last quarter or so of the sword’s blade, with the top portion being secured through a loop up near the top of his back. It works well, and since it’s covered by the cape, it sort of creates the illusion of being a full scabbard. He-Man also has a pistol holster on his left hip, and two dagger sheathes attached to his right leg, so he can comfortably carry all four of his weapons. Although, I think I have the daggers switched in my photos. They will each fit in either sheath, but I think the more ornate one is supposed to go up high.

OK, so let’s talk about these heads. You get two, and I think this one is supposed to be an approximation of Dolph Lundgren and I’m going to guess that Mattel didn’t have his likeness rights, because I refuse to believe this is the best they could do. Now, accepting that this is not Lundgren, I don’t dislike this head, as it looks like it could have been based on concept art for the film. It kind of looks like they wrote an algorithm to see how much Lundgren they could infuse into the portrait without getting smacked down by lawyers. The hair sculpt is similar to what we saw in the movie, and if I’m being honest, the portrait just works fine for me. I think it looks good on the figure, although I’m willing to bet most collectors will be disappointed at not getting the real thing.

The other option is more of a classic He-Man noggin, and I like this one too. The face is very traditional, as is the poufy coif of hair. In the end, I’ll likely display the figure with the first head, just because the hair sells it as the movie figure, even if the face doesn’t. But I’ll still alternate heads a bit for the pictures in this review.

The articulation here is pretty good, although I have a few little gripes. The upper body is all great, with a pretty good ball joint under the chest and a ball joint in the neck. I especially like what we got with the arms. There are rotating hinges in the shoulders, swivels in the biceps, double-hinges in the elbows, and hinged pegs in the wrists to swap out between the two sets of hands. You get one set of accessory holding hands, one left fist, and one right flat hand. I really wish we had gotten a full set of fists and a set of relaxed hands, as just one of each feels kind of weird. The legs have decent ball joints in the hips, swivels in the thighs, double-hinged knees, and hinges and lateral rockers in the ankles. The lower hinges on my figures knees are fused, so that’s a bummer. My guess is I can free them with some heat, but for now they’re useless.

I am very pleased that the arm articulation allows He-Man to double-hand his sword! And speaking of swords… let’s check out them weapons!

The two daggers are cool little pieces, and they look great paired up on his right leg, as either last resort weapons, or just to throw at Karg’s ugly face. One is very simple, with a utilitarian gold hilt, no guard, and a double edged blade. The other has a more ornamental hilt and guard, and looks like it could be some special artifact from the bowels of Grayskull. These fit well in either sheath or gripping hand.

Next is the laser pistol. I’m not sure if having He-Man carry a gun in the film was controversial or not, but I loved the idea. Eternia is all about that mix of swords, sorcery, and tech, and I’ve always adored fantasy-sci-fi like Flash Gordon where laser guns coexist with swords. The gun has a cool sci-fi design, but sadly He-Man does not come with a trigger-finger hand, and this gun has a really pronounced trigger guard, so he looks kind of weird holding it. I suppose we can chalk it up to Trigger Discipline, and maybe that’s part of a lost PSAs planned for the end of the movie.

And finally we have his trusty sword, and this is a beauty. It’s a huge departure from the design seen in the toyline and the cartoon, and it looks more like it’s patterned after Conan’s theatrical blade, but I love it. The grip is ribbed, and the guard and pommel are painted in an aged bronze to match He-Man’s armor pieces. The blade is left as bare plastic, and while I would have loved some silver paint here, it still looks fine.

I don’t have the Super7 figure to do a direct comparison, but having looked over some pictures, I think this one holds up remarkably well. Indeed, if you forget about the head for a moment, I’d say I like this one better than what I’ve seen of Super7’s. And to be fair, I don’t think Super7 did all that great a job with the Lundgren likeness. Either way, I am really happy with how this figure turned out. A better selection of hands would have really boosted him a lot higher in my eyes, but even as he is now, I think he’s a great figure and lots of fun to play around with. Next week, I’ll circle back and check out his nemesis… Skeletor!